


Welcome Home

by beautiful_flyaway



Category: Naruto
Genre: A magical universe where neji lived, M/M, apparently
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 17:53:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18554809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beautiful_flyaway/pseuds/beautiful_flyaway
Summary: "I'm home," he called, trying to keep the sadness from his voice... But he was greeted by silence.





	Welcome Home

**Author's Note:**

> Look, I've always thought the whole "I'm home/welcome home" custom in Japan was adorable. I'm a miserable weeb now, just like I was back then (but I'm a grown up now, goddammit. I hide it so much better).
> 
> This one isn't a songfic, which is honestly shocking. 
> 
> So anyways, here's part 2 of Throwback Week with Beautiful Flyaway!

_Finally,_ Gaara thought to himself.  _I'm done my work for the night._    
  
The Kazekage breathed a sigh, and pushed himself away from his desk, glad that he could finally go home to his lover.  
  
Yes, getting home to his Rock Lee's warm comforting arms was always his favourite part of the day, and had been for the last eight years they'd been living together.   
  
Although, despite his relaxing demeanour and ever-welcoming embrace, Gaara had noticed that Lee had been seeming… distant for the past few weeks; like the former leaf-nin was merely a shadow of the man he had been, ghosting through Gaara's life like he didn't really want to be a part of it. Every time the usually energetic Shinobi smiled, it never reached his eyes, never showed the sparkle of his teeth. Gaara hadn't heard an  _I love you_  in – he lifted a hand to count on his fingers – four days now, and their physical contact had been... limited. It seemed like forever since the last time Lee had reached for him in the night, since he'd felt his hard body and hot skin against him.

The two of them may have slept mere inches from one another, but Gaara couldn't help but feel like the love of his life was miles away from him…   
  
He couldn't help but feel that Lee's feelings had changed.  
  
As he walked through the streets of Suna towards his home, he considered talking to Lee about it… but he couldn't bring himself to do that. What if bringing it up would give the other man the opening he'd been looking for to end things? Even if it was inevitable, Gaara didn't want to be the catalyst to something so horrible.   
  
With his head hung, and his chest aching, he stood outside their home with his hand on the doorknob, and tried to keep his negative thoughts at bay.   
  
He would go inside. He would announce his arrival. And, like every night, Lee would welcome him home, calling out from wherever he was in their home. Gaara would cook dinner. Lee would clean up once they ate. Their routine was repetitious, reliable, something that Gaara could rely on, even if a million other things changed.

  
With his second sigh of the evening, he pushed his way into the vestibule, and slipped the sandals off his feet.  
  
"I'm home," he called, trying to keep the sadness from his voice... But he was greeted by silence.   
  
"Lee? I'm home!" he tried again a bit louder.   
  
And still, silence.  
  
The Kazekage felt a twinge of pain in his chest and walked further into the house, the linoleum beneath his feet sending a chill through his body... or maybe it was worry that made his body feel cold.   
  
There was a light on in the kitchen, and as he trudged onward, towards the illumination, he could hear a beautiful sound permeating the air… one he hadn't heard in ages; it was Lee's jovial laughter.   
  
"Lee?" Gaara muttered, stepping into the kitchen, and laying his eyes on his lover's beautiful, beautiful smile… and the source of his elation.  
  
"Oh hi, Gaara," Lee smiled. "I did not hear you come in. You remember Gai Sensei, right?  
  
"Of course I do," Gaara said flatly, remembering so clearly the first words the Jounin in question had said to him:    
  
 _"He is my beloved subordinate."_  
  
And, these days, the red-head didn't like anyone calling his Rock Lee their beloved anything, but for Lee's sake, he didn't bring that up.   
  
"What brings you to Suna, Gai?"  
  
In the eight years since the war against Uchiha Madara, his lover's resemblance to his former sensei had lessened severely, Gaara noted; while both of them still cut their hair in the same bowl-like fashion, Lee's had grown long in behind, and hung down his back in a shiny onyx braid. His face had matured, though his eyes were still perfect circles framed by long, elegant lashes, and he had since traded his green spandex for clothing more suited to the desert heat.   
  
But, resemblance or not, their fondness of one another was obvious, and today he found it sickening him to his core.   
  
Gai turned to the sand-nin and flashed his signature "nice guy" pose.   
  
"I was just missing my most beloved student," he said, glancing back at Lee, who was beaming, resplendent like the noon-day sun.  
  
Gaara scowled; there was that word again. It didn't seem to faze Rock Lee though, as he grasped the man's shoulder in a hopeful way.   
  
"You will stay for dinner, right Gai Sensei?" The contact between the two of them was more affection than Lee had offered to him in ages... And the sight of it burned in Gaara's heart. Silently, he begged some unknown force that the Jounin man would refuse.   
  
"I'd like that, if Gaara-kun doesn't mind…"  
  
Inwardly, Gaara let a string of curses free.  
  
"Of course, it would be our pleasure. Lee says I make good curry. Is that alright?" his words were welcoming, but his tone didn't match.  
  
"My favourite," Gai grinned, letting Gaara's chilly monotone hang in the air unnoticed.  
  
Throughout dinner, and until Gai was ready to leave, the two men once known as the Green Beasts of Konoha talked and laughed and touched while Gaara remained silent, vexed beneath his passive exterior. 

Why didn't Lee smile that way for him? Why didn't he want to touch him?

Even though he tried to push the upsetting thoughts from his head, a single conclusion kept returning to his consciousness; Lee was happier now with Maito Gai than he had been with Gaara because… Lee was tired of him.   
  
Tired.   
  
Each time the word found its way into his mind, it was like a dagger in his heart.

~*~  
  
"Goodbye, Gai Sensei," Lee smiled sadly as the three of them stood at the door, bidding a farewell that couldn't have come soon enough for Gaara.   
  
The Kazekage cringed, and had to avert his eyes as the two others threw their arms about each other, and cried all over one another.   
  
"Please come to Konoha soon. I know Neji and Tenten miss you," Gai sobbed, and Lee nodded.   
  
"I miss them too. Please send my love to them… and to Naruto-kun and Sakura-san as well," he sniffed in response. Gai nodded, and glanced to Gaara.   
  
"Thank you for having me in your home, Kazekage-sama."  
  
"My pleasure," Gaara lied. "The one who made Lee into the man he is today is welcome in my house any time."  
  
The eldest man smiled, and with a wave he was gone. Gaara breathed a sigh of relief, and turned to his lover, who in turn said:  
  
"I will clean up the kitchen," and sped off in the direction they had come from previously, leaving Gaara bereft in the foyer of their home. If his hunch was correct, would this even be their home any more?  
  
Gaara could feel tears welling in his eyes as he stalked off to a quiet corner of the house to be alone.  
  
In solitude, no one could hurt him.  
  
Salty droplets streamed down his cheeks as he sat in the darkness on the floor in their work out room, darkness leaving him blind to everything but the emotions in his heart. 

Since the day they met, Gaara had always been the one to hurt Lee, physically at first when he couldn't reconsile his feelings for the Leaf-nin, and then emotionally when he became scared of getting too close.

He had no idea then that Lee had the power to hurt him so wholly, so completely without even realizing he was doing so.   
  
He felt like he'd been there for hours, wallowing in sorrow before he heard Rock Lee's familiar voice fill the room.

"Gaara?" But the Kazekage made no move to respond. He heard Lee shuffling further into the blackened room.  
  
"Gaara, what are you doing here in the dark?" he asked, stepping slowly towards him, avoiding the training gear that littered the floor.   
  
The younger man made no attempt to respond. The only thing that gave him away was the sob he failed to choke back when Lee kneeled down beside him.  
  
"Gaara, are you crying? What is wrong?" he questioned, reaching out a bandaged hand, and resting it on Gaara's dampened face.   
  
The contact was warm, and felt so wonderful on his skin. More tears fell as he thought about these touches being numbered.  
  
"I know you don't... Love me, anymore," he choked, the words leaving his lips further breaking his heart. "I know, and I don't want to burden you, I don't want to keep you here with me, if you don't want me anymore."

  
Lee was silent for a long time, just the quiet sound of his breathing indicating that he was still there. Gaara was about to say more, when Lee lifted Gaara's chin, and stared at him until their eyes adjusted to the lack of light, and they could see each other. The look on the older man's face was a cross between shock and confusion, and after some time, he finally stammered:  
  
"What?"  
  
Gaara sniffed and tried to compose his voice.   
  
"You were smiling with Gai… you never smile with me any more. You haven't told me you love me in four days, you haven't touched me in weeks…" he looked away, unable to meet Lee's beautiful, earnest eyes any longer. When he continued, his voice was barely a whisper. "And you didn't welcome me home today."  
  
"Gaara…" Lee's voice was barely a whisper. "Oh, Gaara-kun."  
  
The honorific caught him off guard. Lee had dropped the suffix years ago. He wondered what inspired him to use –   
  
His train of thought was interrupted by Lee's lips coming down hard against his own, the sensation like cool rain after a drought, like a warm fire after being caught in a snow storm. It was nothing short of beautiful, wonderful, and thrilling.   
  
Gaara melted into the kiss, and wrapped his arms tightly around the other's neck, as he was pulled into Lee's lap. His hands slowly unravelled the braiding in Lee's hair, and ran his fingers through the long, silky locks, as he was pulled even closer against his lover's broad chest. Pulling their mouths apart, the older man squeezed Gaara around his waist, and stroked the fiery hair that had grown to his hips in the past several years.   
  
"Gaara, how could you think something like that? I love you. I love you so much I can not stand it sometimes. My whole world revolves around you. I live for you, and I would die for you…" He kissed the kanji on Gaara's head.

"I would never want to make you feel as though that sas not true. I am so sorry I have been causing you to worry. The sadness I have been feeling, that is not because of you. It is... Konoha. It has been so long since I have been back. Gai Sensei is a piece of the home I have been missing so dearly. Do you understand?" He asked, nudging his head against Gaara's.

  
"Yes… I do." Gaara whispered, relief and happiness flooding through him like a dam had broken within him. "If you miss it, then we'll go there soon and see all of your friends. I understand Uzumaki Naruto has become Hokage, and I haven't had the chance to congratulate him yet."  
  
"I would like that. And I am sure that Naruto-kun would as well." He replied, scooping the red-head up, and carrying him to their bedroom. It was so wonderful to be back in Lee's arms, to be smelling his skin, and hearing his voice in his ears.  
  
Lee dropped him gently on their bed, and covered his body with himself, like a youthful blanket, as the green beast probably would have said. The bigger man dropped his lips to Gaara's ear, and taking its lobe gently between his teeth, murmured:  
  
"Welcome home, Gaara."

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently this took place in the happiest alternate universe where Neji didn't die. Obviously this was written before that happened, but I most definitely don't have the heart to edit it out here. I did make a few changes, but that was not one of them.
> 
> I may or may not rewrite this at some point... clean it up a little, make it a bit meatier, maybe don't wrap it up so quick, idk.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you liked. Leave me a comment, leave me a kudos, they're my lifeblood. They keep me holding on. They make me want to FUCKING WRITE. 
> 
> xx


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